Jeff Christensen VP of Product at Seegrid, the leader in connected self-driving vehicles for materials handling, advocated a measurement of predictability for manufacturers’ implementation of Industry 4.0 technology. “As we advance steadily toward Industry 4.0, companies should prepare to redefine how they approach materials handling, such as measurement of predictability in the new technology,” suggested Christensen.

Christensen explains that extracting and analyzing data quantifies the predictability or variance of the technology against the initial throughput measurements or key performance indicators (KPIs) laid out prior to installation.

One of the largest U.S.-based automobile manufacturers utilizes many unique technologies to optimize the number of labor hours expended per vehicle produced. In a Detroit assembly plant, the company deployed over 75 self-driving vehicles to deliver parts predictably and reliably. By vastly improving throughput, self-driving vehicles help drive the company’s overall goal of reducing labor hours per vehicle produced by the plant.

Mail delivery is another example of an industry using self-driving vehicles to streamline processes. The top metric of interest for management is the number of pieces of mail per day that pass through their distribution centers. Self-driving vehicles are part of the ecosystem that moves mail along its path to distribution, but they are not the only technology that facilitates that movement. The data gathered by self-driving vehicles allows management to stay informed about the progress being made across vertical components of their operation and help make operational adjustments that increase predictability and optimize cost per move.

Seegrid (www.seegrid.com) is the leading provider of connected self-driving vehicles for materials handling with hundreds of thousands of miles driven. The Seegrid Smart Platform combines flexible and reliable infrastructure-free vision guided vehicles with fleet management and enterprise intelligence data for a complete connected solution. Seegrid accelerates Industry 4.0 and lean initiatives with incremental automation, helping companies achieve a truly connected enterprise and transform into smart factories of the future. Follow Seegrid on Twitter at @Seegrid.